Farooq Mann

Farooq Mann

Founder and Director

Mr Farooq Ahmad Mann holds an MBA from the University of Birmingham and is a Fellow of the
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, UK (FCCA). He is a Member of the Institute of Singapore
Chartered Accounts and is a Chartered Accountant of Singapore who is a Public Accountant. In addition,
he is a Licensed Insolvency Practitioner in Singapore and is a Member of the Association of Business
Recovery Professionals (UK) (M.A.B.R.P). He has more than 20 years of full time experience in
Insolvency and Restructuring work and has been involved in various litigation support matters, business
valuation engagements and investigation work from time to time.

Mr Farooq Ahmad Mann is the founder and director with of, M/s MANN & ASSOCIATES PAC, Chartered
Accountants of Singapore.

 

He has also undertaken investigations as Liquidator into insolvent trading, unfair preference payments, uncommercial loans, undervalue transactions, public examinations and recovery actions and legal proceedings to recover assets for the benefit of creditors under a range of insolvency administrations, including Bankrupt Estates and the preparation of investigative reports for financiers and creditors. Mr. Mann provides advice on and accepts appointments to both corporate and personal insolvency matters.

Mr. Mann is the founder and director of M/s Mann & Associates PAC, Chartered Accountants of Singapore. Prior to founding Mann & Associates PAC, Mr. Mann was working with other accounting firms where he conducted insolvency work and litigation support work including forensic investigation work. Mr. Mann personally assisted the partners of these firms on these aspects and also carried on such work in the firm that was previously constituted as M/s Wong Mann & Associates PAC.

At present, Mr. Mann has almost 21 years of full-time experience in Insolvency matters having been appointed as Liquidator, Provisional Liquidator, Judicial Manager, Receiver and Manager, Private Trustee in Bankruptcy and as a Nominee in personal voluntary arrangement matters. In connection with his experience in Insolvency practice, he has been appointed as Liquidator, Provisional Liquidator and Receiver and Manager in some high profile insolvencies and estates having substantial assets.

Mr. Mann has been involved in special work including financial investigations and preparation of business valuations. He has also been involved in examining and reporting on financial aspects of disputes of various kinds including claims for loss profits from business disruption, shareholders’ dispute, matrimonial disputes and valuations of entities and shareholdings of stakeholders in such entities.

His litigation support experience includes the preparation of expert reports, attending Court to provide expert witness testimony on various accounting and forensic investigation related matters as well as contested valuation matters. This aspect of his experience has also required Mr. Mann to participate in hot-tubbing sessions in Court with experts of opposing parties and/or working with opposing experts in assisting the Court on the areas of agreement and areas of dispute between experts.

Mr. Mann’s has experience in the following types of insolvency matters:-

Career Highlights and Expertise

Some of Mr. Mann’s Successful and Notable Cases as an Insolvency Practitioner and in Restructuring Matters

Particular Experience and Success as Liquidator of Construction companies

Mr. Mann has been appointed Liquidator of various construction companies and/or companies involved in construction projects during the course of his career as an Insolvency practitioner. In one such case, he was appointed liquidator of a property development company which had undertaken various property development projects. The Order of Court provided for an investigative audit at the instance of any of the shareholders. During the course of his appointment as Liquidator, he was required to conduct investigations into various transactions and on the company’s project accounts. These investigations covered and spanned several accounting years and uncovered a complex web of transactions. There were 5 building projects involved in total and the available correspondence had to be scanned and distilled in order to trace the relevant transactions. It was noted that after scrutinising the documents that various suspicious transactions had been masked thus requiring tedious documentary investigations. At the conclusion of his investigations, Mr. Mann found sufficient basis to obtain independent legal advice on what was uncovered and the legal advice obtained validated Mr. Mann’s findings in relation to the aspects uncovered by him and his team. Legal action was subsequently commenced and the work produced moved to into High Court Suit for breach of fiduciary duties and/or statutory duties and/or breach of trust. Subsequently, there was a mediated settlement.

In another liquidation involving a long established construction company, there was a project undertaken by the company on behalf of a hotel which was nearing completion. However, due to the company’s insolvency, the project could not be completed. Upon his appointment as Liquidator, Mr. Mann liaised with the directors to conduct an assessment which included analysis of the project cash flows, the risks involved and the potential returns. His assessment arrived at the conclusion that if the project could be completed, there would be a surplus return available to the company’s creditors. As Liquidator, Mr. Mann thus immediately conducted negotiations with the employers and sub-contractors of the project and with the co-operation of various stakeholders and with the endorsement of the creditors, the project was successfully completed on time and there was surplus available for the company’s creditors.

There are several other construction companies in liquidation where Mr. Mann by exceeding his brief as Liquidator, was successful in recovering monies and in minimizing the liabilities of these liquidated companies.

Particular Experience and Success as Liquidator of Shipping companies and companies involved in the Shipping Industry

Mr. Mann was appointed Liquidator of Forbes Container Lines Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of a company listed in India, Forbes Container Pte Ltd, Pacific International Lines Pte Ltd, PIO Ezion Pte Ltd, Caria Shipping International Pte Ltd, Aquarius Shipping Solutions Pte Ltd, Harmony Innovation Shipping Pte Ltd and Marine Delivery Pte Ltd to name a few. Details of Mr. Mann’s work with respect to Forbes Container Pte Ltd, Caria Shipping International Pte Ltd and Harmony Innovation Shipping Pte Ltd have been set out in Annexure A separately which is in relation to Mr. Mann’s work involving cross-border insolvency.

With respect to Aquarius Shipping Solutions Pte Ltd, Mr. Mann was appointed Liquidator by the High Court on 12 October 2018. He had to review voluminous documents and records of the company including documents pertaining general average guarantees and bonds in relation to a fire accident incident that had occurred on a vessel that had been chartered by the company. In the course of investigating this matter, it was noted that the company had obtained an advance payment from a Hull Club and this Hull Club had appointed solicitors to deal with Mr. Mann in pursuing recoveries of what they had advanced to the company. This required Mr. Mann to conduct an in depth investigation into the facts and matters pertaining to this fire incident including obtaining all relevant and available documents from the directors in relation to this incident. Mr. Mann, with the consent of the creditors, appointed solicitors to provide him with a legal opinion on the validity of certain Settlement Agreements that the company had entered into with the cargo insurers and other parties in relation to this incident just prior to the company being placed in compulsory liquidation. In particular, the issue was whether these Settlement Agreements were void against the Liquidator and whether the same could be disclaimed by the Liquidator. Apart from this, Mr. Mann also sought a legal opinion on the merits of the company’s claims against the cargo insurers with respect to the fire incident. With a favourable opinion in hand in relation to these claims, Mr. Mann is now in discussions with the solicitors for the Hull Club as to whether they are agreeable to taking over the conduct of pursuing such recoveries on behalf of the company, thus saving the company costs of mounting such proceedings itself and in exchange for the Hull Club possibly having priority over a certain portion of what may be recovered from these proceedings.

Particular Experience in Cross Border Insolvency Matters

Mr. Mann has had extensive experience involving cross-border insolvency matters particularly in relation to Court appointed and creditor voluntary liquidations. This has required Mr. Mann to liaise with professionals in Singapore and overseas including law firms and other members of the insolvency profession in the course of administering the liquidation of these companies. A detailed list of these matters are set out in Annexure A attached.

Particular Experience as Judicial Manager

Mr. Mann is currently the Judicial Manager of Sea-shore Transportation Pte Ltd having been appointed by order of the High Court on 4 October 2019. The matter is ongoing as explained in the 4th bullet under the section, Some of Mr. Mann’s Successful and Notable Cases above.

Particular Experience In Restructuring Matters / Scheme of Arrangement

Mr. Mann is was appointed Scheme Manager by the Court for the purpose of arriving at a scheme of arrangement with creditors of companies such as Dry Bulk Singapore Pte. Ltd. and Globe Sea Engineering Pte Ltd. Scheme creditors voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposed Schemes in both matters.

Particular Experience and Success as Private Trustee In Bankruptcy

Mr. Mann has been appointed Private Trustee In Bankruptcy of several bankruptcy matters. He is presently administering in excess of 10 bankruptcies simultaneously as a Private Trustee. A number of these bankruptcies required Mr. Mann conduct in depth and extensive investigations into the affairs and assets of the relevant bankrupts. In one instance, the bankrupt is the holder of shares in entities based in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. With respect to shares held by the bankrupt in Singapore, Mr. Mann had to obtain a legal opinion from solicitors on claims by the entity as to having a lien over the bankrupt’s shares even though there are no lien or security documents. The matter is ongoing.

In another matter, Mr. Mann after conducting an investigation into the affairs of a particularly recalcitrant and un-cooperative bankrupt, discovered that the bankrupt had transferred assets to the bankrupt’s spouse and which was caught under the avoidance provisions of the then Bankruptcy Act (Cap 20). The spouse in turn had disposed off these assets and obtained the sale proceeds. Mr. Mann, as trustee, after obtaining a legal opinion and the necessary funding from the petitioning creditor, mounted proceedings against the bankrupt’s spouse in the year 2017 so that the proceeds of sale could be recovered for the benefit of the bankrupt’s estate and creditors. Mr. Mann succeed in obtaining the necessary orders of court against the spouse and the matter is ongoing.

Particular Experience As Appointed Nominee In Personal Voluntary Arrangements

In June 2020, Mr. Mann was appointed by the High Court as the Nominee in voluntary arrangements filed in 3 separate applications filed by 3 separate debtors. As the appointed Nominee in which these 3 debtors have submitted a Joint Voluntary Arrangement Proposal (“JVA”) to their creditors, Mr. Mann has been liaising with the Debtors on the provision of information and documents and also in issuing notices of meetings to all known creditors of the Debtors and thereafter moderating the creditors’ meetings that have been held since his appointment. In the course of his role as Nominee, Mr. Mann had to adjudicate the proofs of debt filed by creditors, some of which involved complex loans, convertible loans and share purchase transactions which entailed equally complex and convoluted agreements with complex interest permutations. By reason of these complex transactions and agreements, Mr. Mann had to meticulously review these agreements including investigating into the source of funds from creditors notwithstanding the Debtors’ agreement to some of these debts. In the absence of supporting evidence of funds paid to the Debtors by some creditors, Mr. Mann had to obtain statutory declarations from the Debtors on the payments they received. Thereafter, Mr. Mann also had to engage solicitors to assist him in the adjudication of creditors’ claims in relation to these complex arrangements and interest computations so that his decision on the adjudication of claims could be published to creditors before they voted on the Debtors’ JVA. Mr. Mann is also required as Nominee under the JVA which has since been voted on and approved by the majority of the creditors, to hold all sums that would be paid in due course by the white knight in the JVA on behalf of the Debtors, for onward distribution to creditors in accordance with their respective share proportions.

Professional Qualifications and Licences

Professional Memberships

Professional Appointments / Executive Committee Member

Contact

DID:    +65 6222 7496

Fax:     +65 6222 8768

H/P:     +65 9853 6484

Email: farooq.mann@mann.com.sg